W1 VariWah

Just an update for this underrated pedal.I also had noise problems when using an a.c. adapter.HOWEVER, I tried my adapter for my digi rp-50 (PS-200R-120) and found NO DIFFERENCE IN NOISE COMPARED TO 9 VOLT OPERATION!!It's rated @ 9.6 volts, so frying the wah should NOT be a problem.It does suck a battery down pretty fast, so it's a good investment.Again, have some patience with it (manual mode is best)& you'll have an awesome wah!!

G&L ASAT, F100 > CC2 Oct/Fuzz > Arion stage tuner > Arion Octave > buddawah > E.B.volume > akai vari wah > Mesa bottle-rocket OD > Akai shredomatic > Ibanez Ue405 > CC2 pro vibe > akai intelliphase > line6 DL4 > marshall DSL401 & fender bandmaster. This pedal works fine people, especially at $35.00. No noise. I use a godlyke power-all with great success. The manual wah held it's own with my budda wah but the budda wah smokes everything in that deptartment. It makes a fine on-board back up for the budda wah for sure. To address issues from previous reviews...All unity gain wah devices reduce the volume of a clean guitar signal people, it's a EQ filter. Simply put a mild OD after the wah to enhance and beef up the filterd tone to taste. Now add a fuzz in front of the filter and you got sounds unique to you. This pedal is smooth and watery in the fine analog tradition. I'm guessing it is an optical functioning filter like a morley wah or the new maxon reissue AF9. Thats why it is not the most exciting manual wah. This is a less detailed wah tone compared to the budda tone for sure, but it is perfect for auto wah and filtering edgy clean or fuzzed single coils. Gotta have a mild OD though if you want ANY auto wah to sound better. With a volume pedal between the fuzz and vari wah (auto mode) I can get great analog synth pad sounds. This turns the volume pedal into an expression pedal for the auto wah. Simply adjusting the sensitivity and the attack time yields envelope following along with the filtered tones. These volume swell synth tones are very unique to the player and their rig and feeding a delay especially an analog delay is just a lot of fun. The LFO depth and speed knobs are also very useful to give your filter mahem even more motion. No it's not random like the seek wah but your playing dynamics or volume pedal swells will get moved around kinda like a phase shiter. The offset knob works a lot like a combination of both a "frequency and "resonance" knob of a traditional filter. This on won't blow speakers or your ears out like my filter queen. And Yes, it holds it's own with the filter queen as a guitar effect as the filter queen by-pass destroys passive guitar signals especially the delicate tone of germanium based fuzz. The assignable expression pedal is also very handy and worth the extra space. This box replaced my line6 filter modeler which replaced my flter queen on sound quality alone.

Solid metal box. Nice true bypass switch too. Made in Korea. Feels solid but not too heavy.

Auto wah/filter with 5 interactive parameters to adjust does take some time to find what works with your setup. The manual is helpful if you already understand filters. It's most versatile when used with a fuzz before and a tube screaming like OD after. Even though I have experience with analog filters, it still took 30 minutes to get it working for me. Even though it's an "auto filter", it's not plug and play like a distortion box.

Akai is a corporation so they automatically SUCK..

Very versatile. Lots of cool filter sounds to be discovered here. Filters take time to make sound right. Once you have it though, you are only a few tweaks away from more unique sounds. It will take ordinary fuzz into freaky and funky realms of kaos and gives fuzz another life as a tone generator to create vintage synth tones. Filters are a really cool way to open the guitar up to other new territorry besides Grateful Dead noodling and funk grooves. Get one